The dark web -Part 7.

Mariano lost his own bet.

Three days after his death, the police broke down the door of the apartment. More accurately, the building's landlord opened the door for the officers with a spare key.

One might assume that Mariano's parents, not receiving any signs of life from their son, would become concerned and report his disappearance. That wasn't the case. They found out hours later when an officer visited their home, searching for Mariano or information about his whereabouts.

The one who reported Mariano's disappearance to the authorities was DARKMEME999. Better known to his mom as Manuel, a thirteen-year-old boy. He described himself as a horror movie enthusiast and a fervent follower of DROSS (another YouTuber with horror content) and EXPLORADOROSCURO666 (Mariano).

Manuel had met Mariano one afternoon while jumping from one YouTube video to another with nothing better to do (homework didn't count as something to do). He immediately got hooked on urban exploration videos. It took him a second to subscribe to the channel. He eagerly awaited every Friday, anticipating the content of a new video. The new theme of mysterious Deep Web boxes had hooked him like a drug.

After two consecutive Fridays without his daily fix, he had become angry at first, but then anger gave way to concern. Sitting at the kitchen table (and with nothing better to do), he began to imagine disturbing theories about why Mariano had disappeared. Each scenario was worse than the last, from encountering a psychopath in an abandoned hospital to receiving a bomb from the Deep Web by a terrorist with a twisted sense of humor (he would never know how close he was to the truth). Manuel, who resembled Mariano (without thinking about the consequences of his actions), stole his mom's cell phone and called the authorities. As a devoted fan, and with the help of Google, he knew EXPLORADOROSCURO666's real name and address.

In the end, he was not only harshly punished by his mother but was also visited by two officers who made sure the boy learned his lesson. Nonetheless, Manuel was right; nobody knew anything about Mariano in the past few weeks.

The stench of death hit the police as soon as they set foot inside the apartment. They had to cover their mouths to avoid vomiting. In the living room, the officers found Mariano; he was lying on the floor with a hole in his head and surrounded by a pool of his own blood. The murder weapon was still in his hand.

One of the police officers, Gonzalo Moreno, knelt next to the corpse and examined it closely. His partner, Guerra, looked around the apartment without touching anything and then returned to him. The officers notified the central office and waited for the specialists to arrive.

"What do you think, drugs?" Guerra inquired from the back of the armchair where he sat with his arms crossed. He didn't care whether the deceased had committed suicide due to drugs or because he had forgotten to breathe, but he enjoyed going along with his partner. The fool believed he was an FBI agent.

"It sure looks like it," Moreno replied, still kneeling beside the dead body.

Moreno, who had joined the police force just a few months earlier, examined the corpse with fascination. He had been a fan of detective movies and American TV series for his whole life. As often happens, reality quickly disappointed him. However, whenever he was lucky enough (in his eyes) to find himself in front of a dead body, he never missed a chance to put his detective skills to the test. For this simple reason, he was able to see it.

"What do we have here?" he asked curiously. He gazed at the dead man's clenched hand, barely able to make out a piece of yellowed paper. Using a pen to avoid damaging the scene, Moreno opened the lifeless fingers one by one. The paper was exposed, and the officer saw what was written on it.

"A suicide note?" Guerra asked, leaving the comfort of the armchair and leaning over Moreno's shoulder to see.

"I have no idea. It seems to be written in blood."

They both shared a shiver. Moreno couldn't understand the language on the paper and thought it might be the delusions of a madman. He came up with a brilliant idea (in his eyes), that maybe if he read the words aloud, he would understand them better. He cleared his throat and recited the sentence, word by word.

He had a strange feeling, and the icy claws of fear seized his heart.

He jumped.

Immediately, he calmed down.

It was Guerra who was squeezing his shoulder with one of his enormous hands. He looked Moreno in the eyes and, breaking the silence, said, "I didn't understand a damn thing."

Both burst into thunderous laughter. Moreno's heart began to beat normally again.

Hours later, the real investigators had taken charge of the situation, and an ambulance was carrying Mariano's body in a plastic bag.

Officers Moreno and Guerra, having completed their duties, left the apartment. As they walked to the end of the hallway to take the elevator, Gonzalo felt disappointed. He hadn't managed to discover anything clarifying at the scene, and to make matters worse, the investigators, while examining the dead man's computer, found a strange video that they kept as evidence. Of course, they hadn't deigned to show it to the two police officers. Moreno would have loved to take a look at it (or maybe not so much).

The noisy elevator arrived on their floor, and the doors opened. Guerra entered first. With his two meters and a hundred kilos, he almost occupied the entire space. Moreno squeezed in as best as he could and pressed the button for the ground floor.

"GONZALO."

Officer Moreno trembled. He turned around and looked up at his partner.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Nothing, why?" Guerra, with his arms crossed, raised an eyebrow.

"You just called me by my name."

"I didn't say anything. The corpse must have infected you with madness," Guerra replied and burst into laughter. He loved teasing the newcomer.

Gonzalo Moreno laughed along with his partner to cover the nerves that seemed to pop up all over his body like an annoying rash. He could swear that a sibilant voice had whispered his name in his ear.

The owner of that chilling voice had found a new host. And he had no intention of letting it escape. Soon, he would be free to have fun to his heart's content.